In the hands of Preston Sturges or Frank
Capra, Swing
Vote could have
been great, a big-hearted love letter to democracy that doubled as a loving yet
penetrating satire of its excesses. Instead, the film radiates squandered
potential in every frame. Under the direction of co-writer Joshua Michael
Stern, it emerges as third-rate Capracorn, leaden and lumpy where it should be
swift and pointed.
Kevin Costner piles on the aw-shucks,
good-ol'-boy folksiness as a hard-luck New Mexico trailer-park denizen who
loses his shitty job at an egg factory due to tardiness, drunkenness, and
all-around incompetence. When he proves too wasted to vote, his frighteningly
precocious daughter (Madeline Carroll)—a United Nations General Secretary
in the body of a latchkey kid—tries to vote on his behalf, only to be
foiled by an unplugged voting machine. Through a wildly implausible series of
events, the election becomes a dead heat, and Costner is burdened with casting
the deciding vote. Suddenly, a hapless fuck-up outclassed and outsmarted by his
daughter is being wined and dined by Republican president Kelsey Grammer and
Democratic contender Dennis Hopper.
This potentially sharp working-class fantasy
proves strangely unsatisfying. An overbearing score smothers the film's first
half under strained faux-nobility, while the second hour is given over to
unearned sentiment. In the film's single clever gag, the presidential nominees
shamelessly betray their values in a desperate bid to win Costner's support.
After Costner expresses concern about Mexicans taking American jobs, Hopper's
Democrats become the party of border-protecting xenophobes. After Costner
expresses cautious support for gay marriage on Entertainment Tonight, Grammer's Republicans
suddenly develop an incongruous commitment to legally recognizing alternative
unions. Yet even this bit isn't as pointed as it could be. Grammer and Hopper
are such one-dimensional caricatures that they elude satire. It's hard to
betray your principles if you don't have any.